Crowley centennial.

• Position: Crowley Maritime Corp. - Alaska Business Briefs

A company plying the 49th state's marine transportation for 34 years marks a century in ocean shipping this year. Crowley Maritime Corp. of Oakland, Calif., one of the largest and most diversified marine shipping companies in the world, today staffs more than 100 offices worldwide, operates a fleet of more than 400 vessels and employs roughly 5,000 workers. Revenues for 1991 exceeded $1 billion.

Crowley companies do business throughout Alaska. Alaska Hydro-Train, a railcar and roll on-roll off barge service, holds the record for longest continuous service from Seattle to Whittier. Operated for 28 years, it has transported as many as 105 highway trailers and 100 railcars a week year-round. From April to September, Crowley's Alaska Pacific Line West provides transport to Western Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Other Crowley companies include Alaska Pacific Line, a contract shipping service; Cool Barge, a business supplying the distant early-warning radar system; a barge service for module deliveries to Prudhoe Bay; and entities that contract to provide oil-industry and environmental services.

Crowley Maritime began in 1892 when 17-year-old Thomas Crowley bought a rowboat and began ferrying supplies and sailors to and from ships in San Francisco Bay. The business prospered, and in 1906, Crowley Launch & Tugboat was established, with the slogan "Anything, Anywhere, Anytime, On Water."

By the 1920s, Crowley had expanded into Los Angeles Harbor with tugboats for ship assists and into Puget Sound with tug-and-barge service. The company also began bulk petroleum shipping, a mainstay of its operations today.

In 1958, Crowley entered an agreement to resupply the U.S. government's distant early-warning radar and...